Part Time Lover, Full Time Friend
by missing in imagination
Summary: It was as if ten pounds of worry and weakness lifted off my shoulders and like a balloon, negativity floated to the never-ending sky. And I felt perfectly fine. NILEY


**A/N:** This is for all of you who have waited patiently for something from me, and I tried really hard but it isn't my best. I just feel really bad and I feel like I'm disappointing. I was really excited when I saw the new Niley lunch date photos and this is kind of based off their new friendship and how they can just be best friends and not really care about their past and let it restrain them. Who knows what they'll have in the future, nobody can predict that. I'm just perfectly fine with Miley and her current relationship with Justin, and Nick. I didn't really mean to make Justin the bad guy in this though, but I think I made him sort of innocent..

I don't own anything! Lyric credit goes to Jimmy Eat World, The Calling, Train, and The Wallflowers.

**Part Time Lover, Full Time Friend  
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**It was as if ten pounds of worry and weakness lifted off my shoulders and like a balloon, negativity floated to the never-ending sky. And I felt perfectly fine. NILEY**

_It just takes some time,  
Little girl, you're in the middle of the ride.  
Everything, everything will be just fine,  
Everything, everything will be alright._

"Justin was being an ass this morning, can you come get me."

"Sure thing, Miles."

I snapped my phone shut bag and stomped out the doorway with the sunshine hitting me like a slap in the face. I felt frustrated and burned, but the way that the world seemed to be smiling down on me made everything else just feel like one big glowing peace treaty. He didn't deserve me. I dropped to the ground and sat on the stone front step with my chin resting in the palm of my hands. Little hordes of ants cowered around my sandaled toes and in my mind I threatened to squash them, but starting at that moment, that single phone call of reassuring hope, I decided that I was going to be optimistic and let the waves of the world carry me away.

I ripped a yellow flower off a stem of my mother's delectable bush and tore at each single petal, reciting that stupid rhyme of love and hopelessness, thinking that maybe I could rely on shrubbery to predict my romantic future. It landed on the hopelessness, apparently he loves me not, and I took that as a green light to lock my torn, bandaged, battered heart into the deep depths of nowhere.

I squinted my eyes as his fancy-shmancy Mustang rolled into my driveway. It glittered in the sunlight like a radical jewel and the black and white fuzzy dice bounced against the windshield. I could see his shadow of long-lost-love stop and he motioned with his hand out the window, that silver ring dancing in the light. I jumped up and smoothly jogged over to the passenger side and waited patiently as he had to reach across and unlock the door. He always forgot that.

I slid into the seat in a huff and breathed a sigh of relentlessness with my hands and bag all gathered in my lap. The car was low to the ground and harmoniously rumbling as it idled in the driveway; I always felt free when I was in his car, driving with the windows down, singing to John Lennon and Stevie Wonder. _Fearless_.

"Alright so what'd the guy do this time?" he asked while backing out of the driveway, his head craned to looking out the rear and his arm resting on my seat.

"He started getting all 'let's talk about our future, Miley,' and I'm just like," I shifted deeper in my seat and looked at Nick uncertainly, "I don't know."

Nick sighed and caught my eyes real quick before returning his stare to the road, "He's older, Miley. Maybe he's got things on his mind that you haven't even begun to think about yet."

"I guess," I mumbled and peered out the gleaming window. The sky was pearl blue and I knew that if I looked hard enough and surveyed the miles apart, I could see the ocean of the royal Pacific. And that's all I really wanted at the moment.

I hated looking like such a lame person with Nick, but he knew me a lot more than any guy ever could. My constant ambition is always strength and looking like I can handle everything, but sometimes "everything" feels like one huge uncontrollable load. Nick can bring out the best, or the worst, in me and half the time I love him and the other half I want to reverse time; but those bipolar emotions keep me grounded. And when you have a _history_ with somebody, it's inevitable that you will always have a future with them in any way shape or form.

We turned onto an interstate and it suddenly occurred to me that I had no idea where we were going. I just wanted out- I wanted out of town, out of sanity, out of mind. Nick was pondering thoughtfully while driving and I just leaned against the window biting my nails. Sometimes you don't need words to say things.

He peered over at me again and appeared frustrated when he saw me still in a confused and unconfident slump. "Come on," he said, "It's not like he's asking you to marry him. Just keep taking it slow and when he goes over the edge, pull him back up," he shoved me playfully and a smile crept across my face, "He's gotta have some reason to be sticking with you."

Nick smiled back at my rejuvenated happiness. "Smile, Miley," he urged in a sing-song voice, trailing through the air, and I shed a grin. It was as if ten pounds of worry and weakness lifted off my shoulders and like a balloon, negativity floated to the never-ending sky. And I felt perfectly fine.

_Cause these are the days worth living  
These are the years we're given  
And these are the moments  
These are the times  
Let's make the best out of our lives_

We sped down Ocean Avenue in a spitfire of blustering heat and paradise. My long hair whipped through the opened-window wind as if it had a mind of its own and Nick kept on singing along to the radio. It wasn't summer yet, but it felt as if it was just at the tip of our reach; these moments never felt so long. 'Starting now I will give second chances, put away the past, and live for the people who love me,' I told myself and I believed it.

Nick pulled into a parking spot and turned the music and the engine off, suddenly leaving the two of us with an energetic silence. I faced straight ahead and felt buzzed and dauntless when the Santa Monica Pier grazed across my eyes.

"No way," I laughed and opened the car door, revealing myself to the late afternoon air and activity.

"Yes way," Nick responded and walked around the car to my side, "It's time to let it all go, Miley, just stop worrying about everybody else."

I nodded my head and we followed each other down the pier, completely ignorant towards everything in our path; except for each other. The weird thing about Nick, that I'm only truly figuring out now, is that he can be quiet in his own little musical world where he doesn't let anybody in, but he knows exactly when to turn on his unconditional care- that little hint of life that brings me back to my feet.

I strode down the peer next to him, gaily basking in the cooling warmth. The sun was slowly moving further and further downward into the horizon, where the orange sky met the ocean blue. The last time I was on the pier was when we were filming the movie and I was up on a stage as Hannah, all decked out in heels and a light pink dress, pleading for Lilly at her birthday party. It was nearly a year since then and a year ago, I never quite imagined that Nick and I would be best friends hanging out once again.

_Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet  
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day  
And head back to the milky way  
And tell me, did Venus blow your mind  
Was it everything you wanted to find  
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there_

"I want all of us to hang out sometime soon," I said with my newly acquired cotton candy sticking at my fingers and lips.

"Who," he asked in reply and grabbed a chunk of the pink and blue fluff before I could smack his hand away.

"Like you, me," I looked ahead and saw the end of the pier nearing with the sun closing into the waters, "Your brothers, Demi, Selena."

"No Justy Wusty?" he shoved me sarcastically.

"No," I frowned in thought and my eyes stared at my feet, "He's got his own friends. Sometimes it's nice to have that separation, you know?"

"Yeah," Nick nodded and I slightly wished I could take back my words. Because that was one of the problems that tore us apart so long ago- we were either together too much of the time with no means of a break from each other. But on the other hand, it seemed as though we couldn't see each other enough. Now we had nothing to live up to, not expectations or regressions. We just had to live, as friends. And I don't even know if he's okay with what's come upon us. I've moved on and I'm sure he has too; we've never felt the desire to talk about it, but at first I was a wreck and he got a new girl. Now it's the other way around and I wonder how that makes him feel.

We then ended up on the beach and my arm was linked in his. The sun had pretty much disappeared and the crashing of the night-time tide echoed through the air. We'd come a long way, we both realized, and our future's were blinded by unknown obstacles, but that was okay. Because loving blindly is better than hating foolishly.

"So uh, thanks for taking me here," I kicked at the wet sand and smiled, "You didn't have to do this."

"Yeah it's alright," he shrugged, "I know when you get into your funks its doom and gloom, and you're never any fun when that happens."

I laughed at the truth, but stopped and faced him seriously, "Do you ever wish we could go back and stop ourselves from getting together?"

"Never," he answered as if I were insane, "Those were some great times and I wouldn't take them back for the world. I think we learned a lot, maybe too much. But I still wouldn't have wanted it to never happen."

"You're right," I agreed and sighed, "Sometimes I just second guess myself way too much."

"Yeah you do," he took my hand and we started walking up the beach, "Come on my Princess."

I linked my arm back through his and smiled, "Right along, Prince Charming."

_Hey, come on try a little  
Nothing is forever  
There's got to be something better than in the middle  
But me and Cinderella, we put it all together  
We can drive it home with one headlight_

**I don't know if I liked it.  
Review?**

**-m.i.i.  
**


End file.
